Detailed Planning for Jan 2022 WDW Trip

[ebusinessguru]

Ooo that’s quite a sampling of resorts! Hope you’ll have a pleasant stay at all of them

Your trip is fast approaching now how exciting it must be! Do you have anything left to organise or just counting down the hours

There's still quite a bit to do. Still need to get the whole family together for a "Disney briefing" where we go through installing the app, running everyone through the it, finalising food and daily itinerary. We need to work out our packing (trying to put as much as we can into hand carry as internal baggage costs are high). And then we're also trying to figure out PCR testing on the way back. Mostly there though! As you know, Disney planning is this sweet mix of fun and lots of details ...

 

[masterpabu]

A Disney briefing sounds like fun! It's just me and DH, though he just goes along for the ride and needs to know what times to wake up and that's it hahah
Ugh their internal baggage fees are the worst, I don't get why they cost more than international baggage (which is most usually free!)

Have you booked any dining reservations?

 

[Mollari]

I just saw that you guys have booked tickets with AttractionTickets. I also live in Australia and recently discovered them.
I was just wondering what your experience with them was like? (I've only ever bought WDW tickets direct with Disney)
Did you get them posted to your house? (I was under the impression you could get them as e-tickets but don't see this as an option on their website)
Thanks

 

[masterpabu]

I just saw that you guys have booked tickets with AttractionTickets. I also live in Australia and recently discovered them.
I was just wondering what your experience with them was like? (I've only ever bought WDW tickets direct with Disney)
Did you get them posted to your house? (I was under the impression you could get them as e-tickets but don't see this as an option on their website)
Thanks

Overall experience was really good! Received the tickets in the post, I think it was via FedEx, a week after ordering so it was really quick, it came in a package with a little travel guide as well which I thought was quite nice (helpful info for DH who isn’t as down the rabbit hole as me lol!)

Price was excellent and I purchased them at the Euro rate which worked out better too

 

[Mollari]

Overall experience was really good! Received the tickets in the post, I think it was via FedEx, a week after ordering so it was really quick, it came in a package with a little travel guide as well which I thought was quite nice (helpful info for DH who isn’t as down the rabbit hole as me lol!)

Price was excellent and I purchased them at the Euro rate which worked out better too

Awesome, thank you so much (especially with the Euro rate tip ).
I'm not planning on going until Jan 2023 but I'm eager to buy tickets now

 

[ebusinessguru]

A Disney briefing sounds like fun! It's just me and DH, though he just goes along for the ride and needs to know what times to wake up and that's it hahah
Ugh their internal baggage fees are the worst, I don't get why they cost more than international baggage (which is most usually free!)

Have you booked any dining reservations?

we've been trying to get dining reservations, but because we missed the 60 day booking window .. there's not much available
Going to see what we might be able to get much closer to the date (hopefully there are cancellations)

 

[ebusinessguru]

I just saw that you guys have booked tickets with AttractionTickets. I also live in Australia and recently discovered them.
I was just wondering what your experience with them was like? (I've only ever bought WDW tickets direct with Disney)
Did you get them posted to your house? (I was under the impression you could get them as e-tickets but don't see this as an option on their website)
Thanks

yup, the 14 day ticket was amazing. No problems with using them

 

[Mollari]

yup, the 14 day ticket was amazing. No problems with using them

Thank you! I did decide to go with them and bought the tickets two days ago, I just finished making my park reservations for 2023!

 

[masterpabu]

we've been trying to get dining reservations, but because we missed the 60 day booking window .. there's not much available
Going to see what we might be able to get much closer to the date (hopefully there are cancellations)

Hopefully you'll be able to grab some! My window opens tonight so I wonder how much luck I'll have for Space 220

Thank you! I did decide to go with them and bought the tickets two days ago, I just finished making my park reservations for 2023!

That's exciting nonetheless! What month are you planning for 2023?

 

[Mollari]

Hopefully you'll be able to grab some! My window opens tonight so I wonder how much luck I'll have for Space 220




That's exciting nonetheless! What month are you planning for 2023?

January. Already counting down the days!

 

[SnowWhite09]

Thanks. Just booked 8-24 January with Fiji ($1,600 return). Turns out pushing it later meant cheaper flights and accomodation in the US. We were able to get LAX-MCO on Frequent flyer points if we moved it later.

We got VGF at the 11 month window as it's our home resort. We bought the minimum package (when it came out) and have regularly done WDW trips every three years (bank one, use one, borrow one). Our trip this year was postponed due to COVID, and so we booked Jan 2022 out of necessity (DVC allowed us to move the dates as the parks were closed). But it's now turned out to be pretty good. Looks like it's definitely WDW for us in Jan!

Happy to let you know how things panned out, so that you can prep for your March trip

Super exciting and looking forward to hearing all about your trip - have an awesome time!

 

[ebusinessguru]

Hey! Just got back. Can't really believe that we made it there Covid free, stayed Covid free there and came back covid free. We had prepped for the possibility of getting it (which is why we only did Orlando and stayed for over 2 weeks in one location). Was looking forward to testing out the travel insurance Unfortunately now, I can't really review HeyMondo (other than it was cheaper than Covermore). Grateful that we didn't get sick though.

It's pretty busy now that I'm back, so I'm gonna just type a few things in here and then monitor this discussion thread for any questions (which I'd be happy to answer). We tried a quite a lot of new things while we were there. Hopefully this will help anyone who is going soon:

1. Turo: Wow! we loved using Turo (my sister had used it before and so we were willing to give it a go). It's like an AirBnB for cars. But it's better than the very expensive regular car rental because the owner drives the car to you (or to the airport directly) and picks up the car from you (or the airport). Saved us a lot of time, plus it was much cheaper than car rental

2. Google Fi: We got US sims through Google Fi (you will need to create a US App Store account). $30 USD for a month of unlimited calls, text and 32 gigs of data at high speed (unlimited and throttled after that). Easy to set up (I had an eSIM, meaning that they didn't even need to send me anything .. but the rest of the family had regular SIMs). Worked like a charm

3. PCR Test: Found a place that did it for $125 (with same day results). Not sure that is relevant now

4. Fiji Airways: Super long flight (our flight back was Orlando to LAX with Delta, and then LAX-Nadi-Sydney-Melbourne .. 35+ with layovers). It was ok, but very good for the price (we had 5 of us). Would fly them again.

5. AttractionTickets from UK: Wow, those 14 day tickets were fantastic!

6. WDW: So many things have changed and the way you organise and plan the parks is now so different. Probably too hard to type it in here, but we tried a range of different things (eg. Genie+, Extra Magic House etc.). Definitely get to know the MDE app well. Happy to answer questions on here

7. Resorts: My ranking of the ones we stayed at: Grand Floridian Villas, Riviera, Polynesian and then Old Key West. Not that OKW was bad .. we had a 2 BR there and it was actually really good to end with extra space to pack and unwind. Used the resort a lot at OKW

Anyways, just a quick brain dump from me. Happy New Year!
Chris

 

[masterpabu]

Welcome back! Glad you guys had a great trip!

How were the crowds during your park days?
People have been going on about how it’s unseasonably busy this January and tbh I think all bets are off regarding crowd predictions anyway
Luckily with those UK tickets we’d be able to park hop if we need to!

I’m really looking forward to flying with Fiji been hearing good things about their service, did airport check in take long at either end?

 

[ebusinessguru]

Welcome back! Glad you guys had a great trip!

How were the crowds during your park days?
People have been going on about how it’s unseasonably busy this January and tbh I think all bets are off regarding crowd predictions anyway
Luckily with those UK tickets we’d be able to park hop if we need to!

I’m really looking forward to flying with Fiji been hearing good things about their service, did airport check in take long at either end?

It was pretty crowded. We had MLK weekend one of the weekends we were there and it was super packed. We were grateful that we had the 14 day ticket so most days it was just Early Morning Hours (or evening hours), and then back for rest and a chill evening seeing shows etc.

Airport check is was REALLY SLOW when we left for the US. So many people didn't have their documentation or didn't fill in the correct forms (took us almost 2 hours would you believe?). However, when we got back most people had figured things out and the requirements had eased a bit (or the check in crew were not that pedantic by then). Might be a lot easier by the time you go

 

[masterpabu]

It was pretty crowded. We had MLK weekend one of the weekends we were there and it was super packed. We were grateful that we had the 14 day ticket so most days it was just Early Morning Hours (or evening hours), and then back for rest and a chill evening seeing shows etc.

Airport check is was REALLY SLOW when we left for the US. So many people didn't have their documentation or didn't fill in the correct forms (took us almost 2 hours would you believe?). However, when we got back most people had figured things out and the requirements had eased a bit (or the check in crew were not that pedantic by then). Might be a lot easier by the time you go

super grateful for the 14 day tickets will be an understatement for me, I'll keep hoping Spring break crowds won't start building until the second week (touch wood), though can't avoid Mardi Gras so we'll just hope for the best!
I've told other family members planning their trip to just expect it to always be busy, and take any easy/slow days as a win

Holy crap 2 hours?? We were planning to get to the airport 4 hours early though might add some extra buffer time now just in case hahaha gotta get some use out of lounge access!
I'm remaining (overly) optimistic that the requirements will be further eased by then too, surely triple vaxxed and no symptoms will be enough to fly at some point, I'm always wary in the back of my mind if we're just asymptomatic and would have no idea until we get tested

 

[BecBennett]

Thanks for your update! I only heard of Turo there other day, so it's good to hear that it's really easy to use. We'll probably look into it for a few car rentals for our trip.

Was EMH really beneficial for your trip? I'm pretty sure we're going to stay off-site, but would like to know how worth it it was.

 

[ebusinessguru]

Thanks for your update! I only heard of Turo there other day, so it's good to hear that it's really easy to use. We'll probably look into it for a few car rentals for our trip.

Was EMH really beneficial for your trip? I'm pretty sure we're going to stay off-site, but would like to know how worth it it was.

Yes! EMH Was actually the best part of the trip. Without Genie+ (so expensive to buy for 5 people every day .. we only did it once) ... the queues get really long. So getting there 30 mins early actually gives you a big advantage (your family needs to be up and there early in the morning though). We were DVC, so the evening hours were also really good.

If you stay off-site (which honestly is also a pretty good option) I would budget for some Lightning Lane or Genie+ passes to get through the really hard to get rides.